APPRAISING AN ARTICLE ABOUT DIAGNOSIS

CLINICAL SCENARIO

You received the following text message from your 25 year old male cousin
working in Indonesia as an engineer.

Gud am! sila pracetamol. later p – use nila

Taas lagnat me 5 Baba konti lagnat ung parang pang-
days, mejo sakit but sakit p tyan chek ng blood
dn tyan & soft me . Exam sugar. Wat b sakit
dumi 2 days. dugo – normal me? Saka wat
Consult me clinic daw CBC. Result gamot inom me?
d2 sa fild, give Salmonela exam Pls txt bak.

You text him back saying:

Dnt knw d test
dan. Wil chek 1st
abt d test. Txt me
d result. Wil txt
bak ASAP.

You did a Medline search for a dipstick method in diagnosing typhoid fever. You
found an article entitled: “Evaluation of a simple and rapid dipstick assay for the
diagnosis of typhoid fever in Indonesia” by Hussein Gasem et al, published in the
Journal of Medical Microbiology in 2002.

Tasks (from EBM Big Brother):

A. Read the article and critically appraise its validity using the Appraisal
Guides for an Article on Diagnostic Tests. Discuss the rationale for each
criterion.

B. After appraising study validity, decide if you want to go on and read the
rest of the article

C. Will you commit to a diagnosis of typhoid fever? What medication will you
give? Text your answers to _________________.

Scenario_dx_2006